ECBC Year in Review 2009

Joyce Chan completed a triathlon in 2009!

In the secular world, 2009 was recognized by the UN as the international year of reconciliation, natural fibres, and astronomy. In pop culture: earth shattering records reflected the astronomy theme as Star Trek started off the summer blockbusters; Captain Io disappeared into cyber-oblivion; Kanye West took the stage from Taylor Swift; and James Cameron Avatar was the only movie that could sink New Moon off number one. There were also a few events which will have future developments to look forward to: Edmonton hosted the curling qualifications to Vancouver 2010; Canada was the joke of Copenhagen; and Alberta launched the start of carbon capture.

With all this talk about warm winters, Edmonton's coldest day of the year hit -46.1c on Dec 13. The Edmonton Journal online reported that the temperature recorded at Edmonton International was the coldest ever in the city, shattering the record by 10 degrees. The Sun reported that it was the second coldest on record. However, both new sources are incorrect as Environment Canada records indicate that while it was cold, there were more colder days recorded. So as a non-mainstream media source, here is an exclusive to close off 2009 with the 4 other coldest days recorded in Edmonton. On Jan 19, 1886, it hit -49.4c; Jan 26, 1972 hit -48.3c (this was the one reported in the Edmonton Sun as coldest ever); Dec 28, 1938 hit -48.3c; and Feb 8, 1939 matched the -46.1c set this year. The Journal descreetly changed both their online article the printed version by the press-time report of this event saying it was the coldest Dec 13th on record. By this time, the news that it was the coldest ever recorded in Edmonton had reached media across the globe as personal-interest filler stories. Now that we've frozen this topic, on with the year in review...

For ECBC, The year of 2009 was definitely one which reflected the theme of the year, Growing in Christ. Not only did the average attendance increase in the pews, but we grew in other ways and met some of the goals set at the beginning of the year. Of the seven goals for the congregation, five selected goals appear to have been met on a non-personal scale include: attend worship regularly, attend fellowship or small group regularly, attend Sunday School regularly as a teacher or student, participate in tithing and offering, and willingly share the grace of God and share the gospel. Note that the other two goals are personal. ECBCs English congregation top ten year in review have items that back these points up.

10. Departures from ECBC

ECBC gave a temporary farewell to Melissa, who left to Vancouver to study for a year. In addition to people studying abroad, Nathan Chan also took most of his semester away in Camrose from his bros back at ECBC. We also said goodbye to Mike Chen as he transferred to his wife's church. We bid a second goodbye to the Maneys as Mark was hired as a part time pastor at ECBCs founding church Dovercourt Baptist. This time, however, we said goodbye not only to Charlotte, but also to Roseanna Maney as well.

9. Hockey Tournament Win

After a couple years of hosting the fundraising floor-hockey tournament, a team from ECBC finally took the gold against the highly fierce teams. Team Super Dave were the recipients of the 2009 ECBC Missions Trip Hockey Tournament trophy as presented by "Don Cherry" who made a special appearance to present the awards. Read more and see photos from the tournament

8. Unique worship services

The English congregation has definitely had its share of unique worship styles and services in 2009. From worshipping on the altar to marching around our community, live text requests to reflecting on old hymns, and static to sensual worship, we had a big range of different worship styles. Read the full article here.

7. Guest Speakers

We had several guest speakers come and return to share with us their prophesies and their missions this year. Of the prophets were Pastors Pat Milne and Tawa Anderson who came to preach about our present situation and how to respond to them in our own personal lives.

Of those with missions, Carmelle Mohr came to speak twice about her outreach project of Christmas Presense in serving the physical needs of those North of the American border in inner-city Vancouver. Another missionary shared about his evangelism ministry to fill the spiritual needs of the Chinese emmigrants on the South side of the American border in Mexico.

English Mobile Alpha Site

6. Media Reboot

The ECBC media had reboot this year with several new integrations to the congregation media. The first print media in five years returned with The ECBC ECBC, as named by Carla Brown who won the naming contest as the only entry. The paper managed to squeeze in 10 issues covering various events and people at ECBC.

Another media upgrade this year was the Web 2.0 integrations on the website which are still ongoing. Twitter and Facebook widgets have been successfully introduced and the new forum should be finished sometime in the next few weeks to allow more participation in the forum.

With new mediums and technology, the ecbchurch.org/mobile site was launched as well, to allow access from a mobile phone with increased data phone subscriptions on the market now. For the full story of the mobile web launch, go here.

For a church of our size, and for all sizes for that matter, we are definitely placing our electronic footprint into uncharted territory with our technological upgrades this year. These are harvest fields ripe and ready for us to work and gather.

5. Special Announcements

There were quite a few special announcements this year and we decided to gather them all up as the number 5 story of 2009. Three members of the English congregation were married. Stella and Kelvin made their vows July 18th, while Mike Chen married his wife Leenae on August 8th (photos).

For engagement news, Melissa and Dung were engaged during the Rae mission trip, and Lina and Ryan were engaged earlier in the year.

In April, news was told from the far side of the mountains when Roseanna Ruth Adeline Maney was born, and Tamar Sophia Brown entered the world in August. Oh, and don't forget the classic April fools expectancy joke from Aaron and Yolanda Bonkowski. We had to take the link down almost immediately after it was put up as it caused a lot of unexpected long distance calls from overseas.

4. Rae Mission Trip 4.0

A team of 15 departed for Rae this year with 13 English congregation members sharing the Good News in Rae. Among the congregation members who reported their experience were Dennis and Maddie Milne, Austen and Nathan Chan, Agnes, Daniel and Steven, Peter, and Dung. Cristy Cheng and Pastor Ng were among the members from the Cantonese congregation that joined the team.

3. Retreats

The English congregation had its first full congregation retreat since 2006 and it was a big one with over 50 registrations by the deadline. The fall retreat was a great way for the congregation to get to know one another and it gave us all a time to reflect on what we believe in and how to approach ways to minister to others. Photos of the retreat are available here.

Besides the large retreat, there were a couple small retreats away from home. The New-Christian small-group went on a winter trip at the beginning of the year (story), and Faith Fellowship went on a 'sleep-over in a church' camp-out at Jasper (videos).

2. Fellowships Grow

One of the biggest stories of 2008 is the return of the growth in the English congregation fellowships. After a few years of small group ministries, we now have several dedicated fellowships for various aggregate populations. Besides Faith (post-secondary) & Hope (secondary) Fellowships for youth, Timothy was reborn with about a dozen adolescents every week. For other demographics, the Lydia womens fellowship, and the couples fellowship was started this year. Check out the Fellowships page for more.

In addition to fellowships, we once again have a regular weekly prayer meeting on Thursday evenings. Without all of the prayers with the Lord this year, none of what happened at ECBC would of been possible.

1. Milnes' Arrival

While 2008s top story is a departing pastor, the biggest story of 2009 is the story on an incoming pastor! Pastor Dennis and the Milne family have definetely put in their presence in the ECBC family, and have been able to add their own distinct elements to our dynamic congregation. Our year of 'Growing in Christ' was certainly met with the arrival and the hard work of both Dennis and Ardell, along with the rest of the Milne family. It has definitely been the beginning of a great adventure with them this year.